Peppa? Damaging?

I’ve seen a lot of posts about how Peppa Pig is damaging to our children and I don’t know where I’m at on the subject to be honest.

Amelia is a real Peppa addict and literally stares at the tv the entire time it’s on, occasionally shouting out the character names. This is actually where she learnt the names of a lot of animals like Emily Elephant and Suzie Sheep, she can recognise the same animal when we’ve been out driving or to the zoo.

There’s no question that it is extreamly misleading. For example the episode where Peppa and George want to get a gift for their Granny and Grampa’s anniversary; so off to the shops they pop after revealing all they have to spend is one penny and two buttons. They find a nice big teddy and hand over their penny and buttons and in return as change they get one button back. Now if there is a real life shop that sells things for pennies and buttons then please let me know! I’ll be straight there! (Maybe the Peppa producers know something we I don’t?)

At 19 months I know that Amelia doesn’t really care about spending money (unless is a pound for chocolate buttons – she knows she needs and pound and what one looks like) but when she’s a bit older and more aware and wanting things when we go out and wanting to spend her own money, then I can see how this form of television can be very damaging. I don’t want to be the one to ‘crush her dreams’ and tell her that actually, she can’t buy anything with buttons and she will need a fair amount of pennies to buy anything half decent!

And I also think that we have to remember that we are adults with a whole different perception on life and on the programme. We don’t really have any idea what floats around our children’s heads when they’re watching.

For now, at least, I am happy for her to continue to watch and interact with Peppa Pig. I’m definitely limiting her screen time though (which works out well for me as I can actually watch what I want for a bit!) and instead trying to opt for more educational programmes of maybe music (but that’s for another post!)

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3 Comments

No way, we love Peppa Pig. It’s so tricky because on one hand, it’s very true that Peppa Pig is a touch misleading… but… most whimsical shows are don’t you think? I mean, take a look at Charlie and the Chocolate factory 🙂 Thank you for linking up to the #dreamteam. x

Yes I totally agree! Really everything we watch is very misleading and until they pick up on the bad things I don’t think any of us really need to worry too much 🙂 Thankyou for reading and commenting x